Gospel: So Small a Place, So Great a Work

Broadhead, Philip (Vancouver, Canada)

Before a complex web of political scandals shook the 37th Presidency of the United States in the early seventies, how many people had heard of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.? The names of places often come before us through the study of history or an awareness of current events that create images in our minds that are not easily forgotten. How many tourists would ever stop at Craigellachie, B.C., on the Trans-Canada Highway in the Rockies were it not for a monument that marks the place where the last spike was driven in 1885 to complete the Canadian Pacific Railroad, linking Canada from sea to sea. You may have had the experience of visiting a place that was associated with a memorable event or a famous person, only to be surprised at its smallness. Waterloo in Belgium is such a place, a little village which can scarcely be found in an atlas, and yet it has assumed a place in our thoughts that has nothing to do with its physical size. It was there that the Duke of Wellington defeated the mighty armies of Napoleon in 1815 and changed the course of history in such a way that the effects linger to this present day.

If we think of it, even our planet Earth has been given a place of significance in the universe that is out of all proportion to its size. It is but a tiny speck amid the countless galaxies that God created. Yet, in His wisdom, God prepared a garden in which to place the crowning handiwork of His creation – a man created in His image and likeness. When Satan intruded and man fell in sin, our earth became the scene to which God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. What little town has so often permeated our thoughts as has Bethlehem of Judea? Micah the prophet wrote, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Thus the lowly town of Bethlehem became the Savior’s birthplace in fulfillment of this prophecy

The Bible also speaks about a place called Calvary. It is not with any certainty that we can mark the exact spot where the Savior’s cross was raised. Nor can we point with assurance to the actual tomb, in spite of what tradition suggests. But we do know with absolute certainty that after Christ had died and was buried, He arose the third day a Victor, and the work of redemption was complete. For us, it is not a sentimental attachment to the place, or a pilgrimage to the Holy land that is required, but a look by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ Who hung upon Calvary’s tree to suffer the consequences of sin and to pay the price for our salvation.

There is a basement room in a small prairie town where I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. The place has more significance to me than to anyone else because it was there that I met the Savior. Do you have such a memorable place, dear reader? Just as you are, and where you are, accept as your own Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ Who, in so small a place, accomplished so great a work.